One-pot exfoliation and synthesis of hydroxyapatite-functionalized graphene as multifunctional nanomaterials based on electrochemical approach

Abstract Based on electrochemical exfoliation route, a simplified one-pot approach was put forward to obtain hydroxyapatite-functionalized graphene (GNS@HAP), as a multifunctional nanomaterial. The disappearance of characteristic peaks in XRD results and the microstructure morphology observed by electron microscope observation directly confirmed the successful exfoliation and functionalization of graphene in one pot process. Compared with pure graphene which has few functional groups, GNS@HAP can strongly interact with polymer chains by introducing uniformly-dispersed rod-like hydroxyapatite. Moreover, GNS@HAP presents more significant enhancement effects in flame retardancy, toxic gas suppression and mechanical property of thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) nanocomposites. The peak values of heat release rate and total heat release of TPU-GNS@HAP-2.0 were decreased by 24.4% and 19.8%, respectively. The simplified one-pot electrochemical route offers an environmentally friendly and commercially available method to develop the application of graphene in fabricating polymer nanocomposites.